Coram Nobis
by Frost Deejn
Summary: Pre-Season One. Astrid's first case at the FBI is to reexamine an open-and-shut three year old murder, but not everything is as it seems. Finished.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I have no intellectual rights over Fringe.

Coram Nobis

Chapter 1:

Olivia Dunham found herself actually humming as she came to work that sunny Boston morning. It was a song that had been playing in John's car last night; she didn't know the name.

She stopped humming and tempered her smile as she entered the office and went to her desk.

A minute later, a cup of hot coffee appeared in the middle of her paperwork. She looked up at her boss, Agent Charlie Francis, and smiled. "You getting my coffee now? What's the occasion?"

"The great work you did on the Stafford case. Without that trick you and Agent Scott pulled to get that confession yesterday, it would've taken weeks if not months to unravel his operation."

She shrugged. "John did most of it."

"But it was your plan. And it was brilliant."

She smiled again and waved off the praise. When Francis walked away, she caught John Scott looking at her from his desk across the room. The both smiled quick, shy smiles before looking away.

She expected today would mostly consist of writing reports and wrapping up the Stafford case, which meant if they were lucky she and John could get off early.

That thought brought yet another private smile to her lips.

It felt like this would be a good day.

At about ten, a young woman Olivia had never seen before walked through the doors. She seemed uncertain, and yet determined. She wore a visitor's badge.

She noticed Olivia looking in her direction and walked up to her. "Excuse me," her voice seemed even younger than her face, and was shaking with nervousness. She was a strikingly beautiful girl, with large dark eyes, thick lips, and short black hair in tight spiral curls. "I'm looking for Charles Francis?"

Olivia pointed the way to his office.

Charlie opened his door as the young woman approached. "Miss Farnsworth? Nice to meet you." The office door closed behind them both.

Olivia had finished one report and was thinking of a way to discreetly invite John to an early lunch when Charlie emerged from his office.

"Agent Scott, Agent Dunham, can I see you for a minute?"

It sounded like a case. She and John exchanged slightly regretful glances, then stood simultaneously and entered their boss's office.

The young woman was sitting far forward in her chair, legs crossed at the ankles and hands folded in her lap. She was wearing a navy blue pantsuit that looked about a half size too big for her.

"Agent Dunham, Agent Scott, this is Junior Agent Astrid Farnsworth. Agent Farnsworth, John Scott and Olivia Dunham."

"Pleased to meet you." She shook hands with both of them.

"She's going to be assisting you on an investigation. I know you're just wrapping up a big case, but this one shouldn't take long." He handed them both a folder.

John flipped it open. "What's the case?"

Charlie nodded to Agent Farnsworth.

"January 30th, 2005, a body was found in the woods near the Ravenna Hotel, just outside Albany, New York," she began, sounding like she was reciting a memorized line. "The victim was Vinson Gardner, 46-year-old real estate appraiser from Boston. He was killed by blunt force trauma to the head. Lividity indicated it was a body dump. The crime scene photo of the body is on page two."

John and Olivia turned to it.

"Tracks in the woods showed the body had been dragged from the hotel's parking lot," the young woman continued. "There was snow covering the body, none under it. The last time it had snowed in the area was between one and three a.m. the night of January 27th. Gardner was last reported seen alive when he left his office at about six that afternoon. He had no reason for being in New York. Police went over the list of guests at the Ravenna, and found one man who was, like the victim, from Boston. Robert Kohlhepp, an insurance salesman attending a conference at the hotel on the 28th. Turned out, Kohlhepp knew the victim. Mr. Kohlhepp was Mr. Gardner's insurance agent. That was enough for a warrant. They found hair follicles and bodily fluids from the victim in the trunk of Kohlhepp's car. He was convicted of the murder four months later."

Charlie took over. "His case is up for appeal soon. We're going to take a second look at it."

"Appeal on what grounds?" Olivia inquired.

"There's some concern about how the case was handled, procedurally," Charlie said. "Because Gardner was most likely murdered in Boston..."

"Body transported across state lines. It could have been FBI jurisdiction," Olivia realized. "And it wasn't?"

"No; it was handed off by New York state investigators to Boston PD. Other than that, everything was by the book."

"I can see why this won't take long," John commented.

"Still, we want to make sure we do this right. Take a look at the case file, keep an open mind. You'll get started on this tomorrow." He dismissed John and Olivia with a nod. "Miss Farnsworth, I'll show you to your desk."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Olivia called John just after walking out of the room where she could have talked to him in person. Being seen talking on the phone to her partner about a case was less suspicious than inviting him out after work in front of their colleagues. "Hey John, if you have time when you get off work, I'd like to go over the details of the Kohlhepp appeal with you."

"Of course. Want to meet at Sanderson's?" He was referring to a restaurant they'd been to a few times before, a place of middling classiness, not far from the office, not somewhere that would raise the eyebrows of anyone who happened to recognize them there.

"Sure. About five?"

"Yeah. I'll see you there."

He arrived at the restaurant a few minutes after she did. "Hey," he greeted her as he took a seat at their usual table.

"Hey." She had the file in front of her, next to a menu. There were already two glasses of water on the table. "How long did it take you to write up the report on the the Stafford interrogation?"

"Almost two hours, but that's because I couldn't find my notebook. I'd put it in my glove compartment."

"Really? Why?"

"I honestly don't remember."

"Did you have time to read over the case file on Kohlhepp?"

"Yeah. Is the same thing bothering you that's bothering me?"

"Motive," she stated.

"Exactly. He knew the victim, sure, and he had opportunity, but no one's suggested any solid reason for a man with no criminal record and a wife and two kids to suddenly just off one of his clients."

"Yeah. It's possible that Gardner found out about something illegal Kohlhepp was involved in and threatened to expose him. Or he was involved with Gardner's wife. Or the other way around," Olivia suggested.

"But there's no evidence of that. If it weren't for the evidence in Kohlhepp's trunk, the case would be completely circumstantial."

Olivia nodded. "Then again, I've built cases on less."

"But there's usually some trace of motive that's more than plausible speculation."

The waitress returned. They both ordered and relinquished their menus.

"I looked up Astrid Farnsworth," John mentioned in a more conversational tone. "She grew up in Boston, went into the FBI academy straight out of college, requested this post straight out of the academy."

"Back to her home turf."

"Yep. I think Charlie gave us this case because it's a good one for Junior Agent Farnsworth to cut her teeth on."

Olivia nodded. "I think we need to find the motive in this. It would solidify the case. And if we don't it's going to bother me."

"So where do you think we should start?"

"The only piece of physical evidence entered at the trial was the car," Olivia said, thinking like a prosecutor. "It's still being held as evidence at a Boston impound lot. We can take a look at it in the morning."

"Good idea. So what do you want to do tonight?"

His seemingly innocent question caused a flood of less than innocent possibilities in her mind.

* * *

><p>They went to the evidence lot with Astrid Farnsworth the next morning.<p>

The car Robert Kohlhepp had ostensibly transported the body in was a dark blue sedan, the paint slightly cracked. Astrid walked around the car slowly, examining it with a thoughtful frown.

"So Agent Farnsworth, is this your first investigation since graduating Quantico?" John asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Yeah. And is it okay if you call me Astrid?"

"Yeah. So what do you think?"

"Well, according to Kohlhepp, he kept a spare key in a magnetic key holder on the underside of his car. His attorney suggested someone else could have used the spare key to plant evidence in his trunk."

"It's a stretch," he pointed out. "And investigators never found the spare key where he said to look for it."

"True, but that could just mean whoever used it took it with them," Astrid said.

"So you think Kohlhepp could be innocent?" Olivia inquired.

Astrid had taken out a pen-sized LED flashlight. She looked at Olivia with a pensive expression, like she was a student in a classroom thinking over an answer to a question the professor had posed to her. "I've been told I'll change my mind on this, but I want to be an FBI agent who considers everyone innocent until proven guilty."

"According to a jury of his peers," Olivia said, "Kohlhepp was proven guilty."

The young agent shrugged and went back to examining the car. She lied down on the ground to look underneath it.

"The hair follicles could conceivably have been planted," Olivia said to John, "but they also found traces of urine in the trunk. Couldn't conclusively prove it was the victim's, but that's not something most criminals would think to plant."

"I was thinking about possible motives. Kohlhepp was Gardner's insurance agent: there's a lot of potential for fraud there, on both sides."

"But the forensic accountant didn't find anything hinky in their dealings. There was one thing, though. Did you notice the part about the victim's wife meeting with Kohlhepp the day of the murder?"

"Yeah. Janice Gardner said she wanted to talk to Kohlhepp about the insurance policy on their house. They were seen talking in the cafe down the block from her house. The timing on it is definitely suspicious, but Mrs. Gardner said there was nothing going on between her and Kohlhepp, and witnesses said it didn't look like a romantic rendezvous."

"Not to mention a neighborhood cafe where everyone knows you would be a terrible place to meet with someone if you're cheating on your husband," Olivia added.

John nodded. "Kohlhepp left the cafe at about 6:30, and Mrs. Gardner stayed for about an hour after that chatting with a couple of friends. Assuming Gardner was murdered before being put in the trunk, that would have been right around the time of death."

"And we know he was dumped some time before one a.m. How long do you think it would have taken to get from Boston to the dump site?"

"Five hours fifteen minutes from the Gardners' house to the Ravenna Hotel, driving the speed limit," Astrid answered from under the car. "But there are stretches of road where no one drives the speed limit. You can easily get there in half an hour less. But it was snowing part of the way that night, which would have slowed him down. He checked into the hotel at 11:56 that night, and his key card activity shows he didn't leave his room after checking in. Or he did leave his room and just didn't come back until after breakfast. According to his own account, he went directly from Dayna's Cafe, where he met with Janice Gardner, to the hotel, not even stopping for gas."

"That's a little unusual. Why did he meet with Janice if he was on his way to the hotel?" John wondered.

Astrid answered again. "Both Robert Kohlhepp and Janice Gardner say she contacted him that day because she was thinking about cutting down her home insurance, and he agreed because he didn't know the meeting would run so long. Janice wanted to read over three different policies and had him explain the differences between them."

"And he doesn't remember seeing a body in his trunk when he got back to his car?" he asked.

"He didn't open his trunk. He just got in his car and started driving. He doesn't remember anything out of the ordinary. At least that's what he said at the trial."

John and Olivia shared a smile. It was understandable that Astrid would put a lot of effort studying her first case, but her recall of the details was impressive.

"Ah! Found it! I found the key!" Astrid proclaimed. She pushed herself up from underneath the back of the car. "It's on the inside of his bumper. What's the procedure for this? Do we collect the evidence, or should we get crime scene photographers to photograph it first?"

Olivia almost laughed at the new agent's diligence. "As long as we document exactly where and when we found it, it can be admissible in court."

"Okay. Can you collect it? I don't have any gloves."

"Document in your report that you picked it up without gloves and they can eliminate your prints and it's still admissible," John explained.

"But if there are other people's prints on it, wouldn't touching it risk smudging them?"

"There's not much of a chance anything useable would still be on the key case after three and a half years," Olivia noted.

"Okay. I just want to make sure we collect it right," Astrid said.

Olivia nodded. "Okay. I'll call forensics."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

That afternoon Olivia and John found Astrid at her desk, reports and photographs spread out in front of her, pen and notepad in hand.

"The forensic lab got back to us about the key case you found," Olivia told her. "There were no useable prints on it. It proves that someone else could have opened Kohlhepp's trunk, but not that anyone else did."

Astrid's face fell. The first piece of evidence she'd found had proven useless.

"Don't worry about it," John said. "Most of the evidence gathered turns out to be dead ends. I'm not sure what they're teaching at Quantico these days, but the fastest way to solve a crime isn't to follow the evidence, it's to follow the motive. You know this case pretty well, why do you think Robert Kohlhepp might have done it? And is there anyone else you can think of who had a motive?"

She chewed her lip for a moment. "Robert Kohlhepp had no criminal history. By all accounts, he was a decent guy just trying to make a living, took good care of his family. I guess he could have gone temporarily insane, but who knows. There is someone else who might've had motive, though..." She pushed aside some of the papers on her desk, then lifted up a couple more before finding the one she was looking for. "In March this year, an investigation was started against one of the companies Vinson Gardner worked with. "Layton & Ostergard Inc., a real estate firm. They're being investigated on suspicion of illegal house-flipping, buying broken-down houses for cheap, fixing them up just to the point of looking good, and selling them at an inflated price. Gardner was a real-estate appraiser; he appraised some of the houses Layton and Ostergard sold. If he figured out what they were up to, they would have wanted to keep him quiet."

"How much money is involved in those kinds of schemes?" John wondered.

"Easily tens of thousands in illegal profits per house," she said.

"Could I see that report?" Olivia asked.

"Of course." Astrid handed her the folder.

"At the time of the murder Layton and Ostergard weren't under any suspicion," Olivia mused, "so there would have been no reason to suspect them. The original investigation might not have even turned up the connection. Good work, Agent Farnsworth."

She smiled. "Thanks."

"But that raises the question," said John, "Kohlhepp was the only person known to be in proximity of both the victim's house and the dump site. If someone else planted evidence to frame him, or used his car to transport the body for them, why would they have gone through the trouble? Why not just dump the body themselves?"

"It must have been someone who thought they'd be a suspect," Astrid answered, "and they did it to throw suspicion off themselves."

"But no other suspect was ever considered."

"True," Astrid confirmed, "but I think it's interesting Gardner's wife didn't mention her meeting with Kohlhepp until after he was named a suspect. When Kohlhepp's defense attorney asked her about it in the trial, she said she hadn't thought it was important, and that she'd been so distraught about her husband's murder that it had slipped her mind. Now, I don't know how true this is, but I learned in psych 101 that giving two excuses when one would do is a sign of lying."

"That's been my experience," Olivia said. "The investigators didn't look too hard at Mrs. Gardner. She didn't leave the cafe until after 7 that night, and phone records show she called her husband's office and cell repeatedly as soon as she got home, and called the police at about midnight, followed by calling every hospital in the city. She went into the police department to officially lodge a missing person report the next day. There's no way she could have dumped the body one state over that night, but that doesn't mean she couldn't have hired someone else to do it and made those calls to cover her tracks."

John nodded. "The lead on the case was Boston PD Detective Brady McCormick. I've met him. I worked with him on a case once. A lot of times cops get senses about the cases they work that don't make it into the reports. We should talk to him."

"Can you two handle that?" Olivia asked. "I want to check up on the Layton and Ostergard case."

* * *

><p>Detective McCormick was a large man with white-flecked gray hair. He had to be in his fifties, but looked like he could bench-press a respectable number of weights.<p>

"Detective McCormick," John greeted him with a handshake when he walked into the Boston FBI field office. "Nice to see you again. Thanks for coming in."

"Agent Scott," the detective replied. "Happy to help. I already had all the old files for the case; Kohlhepp's attorney asked for them, preparing for the appeal, so I'd be happy to go over anything with you."

"Thanks. This is Junior Agent Astrid Farnsworth, she's helping us on the case."

"Pleasure to meet you." He shook her hand. She looked a little intimidated and didn't say anything.

"Let's have a seat."

They all sat down around John's desk. "Detective, what I wanted to ask you about was your opinion on the victim's wife, Janice Gardner."

"She seemed like a nice lady. She worked from home, they had no kids, but their friends and family said she and her husband seemed to have a good relationship. One of their neighbors said she heard them arguing a few times, but there's nothing inherently suspicious about a married couple arguing."

"Mavis Shaw?" Astid asked.

McCormick looked at her curiously. "That's right."

"The neighbor across the street from the Gardner's house," she explained to John.

"Anyway," McCormick continued, "the wife had an alibi."

"But she could have hired someone to kill her husband," Astrid pointed out. "You didn't even take a look at her finances."

"It would have been a waste of time and resources. She didn't have an obvious motive. I interviewed her; she's the kind of woman who'd leave her husband before killing him, and his life insurance policy barely covered his funeral expenses. And then Kohlhepp turned up with Vinson Gardner's DNA in the trunk of his car."

"And as soon as that happened you stopped looking at any other possible suspects. Didn't it bother you that Robert Kohlhepp had no motive?" Astrid argued.

"No one else had a motive either."

"What about Joseph Layton and Keith Ostergard, Gardner's employers. They're being investigated for real estate fraud."

McCormick raised his eyebrows. This was clearly news to him. "Really? There was no evidence of a motive for them, either. Even so, I did check on their alibis. They were both in the office for a late-night call to an investor in Russia from 8 to 9 that night, confirmed both by their phone logs and their front office security camera."

"If they got to the office at 8 p.m., they would have still had time to murder Gardner."

"But there's no way they could have transported the body to New York. You're grasping at straws here, missy. Kohlhepp did it."

"Why would Kohlhepp have done it? He had no reason to."

John was wondering if he should step in. He hadn't expected young Agent Farnsworth to get so argumentative, and he was trying to find the appropriate way to let her know she was crossing a line.

But McCormick spoke first. "Who cares why these wackos do it? Our job isn't to psychoanalyze them, it's to put them away. Maybe he's a serial killer who was unlucky enough to get caught on his first murder, or he had gotten away with other murders and just got sloppy with this one."

Astrid bit her lip, unable to think of a retort to that.

"Look," McCormick said, "it seems like you're new at this. You're gonna learn that you never get answers to all the questions. Don't try to get into the criminals' heads. It's not a good place to be, 'kay sweetie?"

John stood up. "Detective McCormick, Agent Farnsworth has a point: if you're going to put a man away for murder, you'd better be sure you've taken a good look at any other explanation. On top of that, she's an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and you'll address her as Agent Farnsworth, not 'sweetie'." He extended his hand for a parting handshake, and replaced his glare with a polite smile. "Thanks for your help."

When McCormick left, John turned to Astrid. She was slumped in her chair, looking contrite.

"I screwed up, didn't I?"

At the look on her face and the smallness of her voice, John decided the rebuke he had planned would be unnecessary. "You've got to be careful about how you treat the people you work with. Even when they're uncooperative, the cops, analysts, and witnesses you deal with are valuable resources, and alienating them could cost you a case."

"It won't happen again," she said.

He smiled at her. "Good. Would you mind reading over McCormick's reports? See if you can find anything unusual about the alibis of Gardner's wife or bosses."

She took the folder McCormick had left. "Of course. Thank you, sir."

When John sat down behind his desk, he saw Olivia had returned. She was watching him from the other side of the room, and came to join him when he caught her eye.

"I heard you standing up for Astrid," she said simply.

"Well, she did have a point. And McCormick was starting to get on my nerves."

"Still, thank you. I know how difficult it is to be a woman in this profession. Especially a young, beautiful woman. Sometimes you feel like you can't get people to take you seriously."

"Did you find anything about Layton and Ostergard?" he asked.

"Yeah. They're guilty. Of real estate fraud, at least. It's going to take a while to prove, especially since no one complicit in their fraud is willing to testify, but their financials indicate they've been selling houses at inflated prices for years. If Gardner appraised any of the houses they claimed they fixed up, he definitely would have known what they were doing. And if he knew about it, they definitely had motive to kill him."

"According to Detective McCormick, they have alibis," John said.

"People who sell sub-standard houses to families at inflated prices and tuck the money away in offshore bank accounts are going to hire someone else to do their dirty work," she opined.

"Even if that's true, we'd need to figure out why and how they framed Kohlhepp. He doesn't fit in to that scenario."

"Maybe we should have a word with him. I'll call his lawyer and arrange a meeting."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Robert Kohlhepp's attorney, Stephanie Lee, was a stern-looking woman with wrinkles at the corners of her lips and gray hair cut in a bob. She greeted the three FBI agents crisply. "My client is willing to cooperate with you because he's innocent and wants to prove it. But if I don't like the direction your questions are going, if I see any hint that you're trying to trick him or twist his words in any way, I will stop the interview immediately."

"I understand. Thank you for your help," Olivia said.

They entered the room at the prison where Robert Kohlhepp had been brought to wait for them. There were five chairs set around the table. Lee took the seat next to her client.

"Mr. Kohlhepp," Olivia greeted him, "I'm FBI Agent Olivia Dunham, these are my colleagues Agent John Scott and Junior Agent Farnsworth. We're looking into your case."

Kohlhepp tried to smile. He was a forty-something man of average height, chubby, balding. He looked completely ordinary, no one you would suspect of being capable of murder.

Olivia knew looks could be deceiving. She was also aware that very often they were not. She took a seat across the table from him. John sat next to her, and Astrid took the chair at the corner of the table. She had a notepad and pen to take notes on the interview.

"Thanks Agent Dunham. I know that you're here trying to prove I'm guilty, but I promise I'm not, and I hope you'll figure that out."

"Mr. Kohlhepp, why don't you tell me everything you remember about the night Vinson Gardner died?"

He nodded. "Janice called me earlier that day to talk about her insurance policy. I met her at a cafe, and we talked for probably about an hour. She said she'd think it over and get back to me. I was worried about how late I'd get to the Ravenna Hotel, so I guess I was checking my watch a lot, because she apologized for keeping me so long. I honestly don't remember exactly what time it was, but it was already dark when I got to my car. I drove straight to the Ravenna, checked in, and went straight to my room. That's all I did."

"Did you notice anyone following you, or anything out of the ordinary?" Olivia asked.

"No. It was three and a half years ago, so I'm sure I can't remember everything exactly, but I had no idea anything was going on. If someone had been following me, I probably wouldn't have noticed it. I didn't even find out Vin was dead until the police came to my house and asked to search my car. I told them fine. I had nothing to hide. Then they found some hair and blood in my trunk and arrested me for Vin's murder. I was sure they'd figure out it was a mistake. But they didn't."

"How was Janice Gardner acting that night?" John asked.

"Normal, far as I could tell. She had a good policy on her house, but she wanted to lower her monthly payment but still keep most of her coverage. She wasn't exactly sure what she wanted, so she asked me to go over the pros and cons with her. She didn't talk much, but to be honest, since Vin usually handled their insurance policy, I didn't know Janice all that well to say whether that was normal for her."

"Did Janice get any calls or talk to anyone else while you were there?" Astrid asked.

He thought for a moment, then nodded. "Her cell rang once, but she took a look at the number and said she didn't recognize it, so she didn't answer."

"When was that? Closer to the start of your conversation, or the end?"

"By that point I was getting anxious to get going, so I was hoping she'd take the call and let me go, so I guess it was later."

Olivia resumed the questioning. "Did you know if Vinson Gardner was ever threatened by anyone, or had any enemies?"

"If he did he didn't tell me. But he probably wouldn't of unless it made him want to up his policy. I didn't know him all that well. I only met with him every couple of months or so."

"Did he ever say anything about Joseph Layton or Keith Ostergard?"

"The names sound familiar, but I can't remember specifically. Why?"

John answered. "Layton & Ostergard was one of the real estate firms that Gardner worked for."

"That's where I know the names from, then. He would have included employment information in his application."

Astrid had been writing in the notebook. She looked up now. "Mr. Kohlhepp, before Mrs. Gardner contacted you to set up the meeting, when's the last time you'd talked to her or Mr. Gardner?"

"About two weeks before that, I met with them both at my office."

"Did you mention anything to them about your conference at the Ravenna?"

Kohlhepp frowned. "Now that you mention it, I told them I'd be going to the conference. I don't think I said when or where it was, though."

That would be information that could easily be found on the internet. Astrid jotted that thought next to Kohlhepp's answer on the notepad.

"What about the spare key that you kept under your car?" Olivia questioned. "Did you mention that to them or anyone else?"

Kohlhepp seemed to stiffen and stared at her. His eyes flicked to the side, and then quickly back to her. "I told some people in case they had to borrow my car for emergencies."

"What about the Gardners?" Astrid asked. "Did you ever mention that you kept a spare key on your car, or recommend that they do in case they got locked out?"

He inhaled and exhaled heavily, and covered his face with his hands for a moment. "I'd suggest to some of my clients with car insurance policies that they keep spare keys hidden on their cars. Sometimes I'd recommend specific hiding places."

"And did you for the Gardners?" Olivia asked.

"Yes. But that was one of the times when I was just talking to Vin. Janice wasn't there."

Though, of course, Vinson Gardner could easily have told his wife about that later. Astrid noted that as well.

Olivia stood. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Kohlhepp. If we have any more questions, we'll be back in touch."

"I hope you are. I just want to clear my name and go back to my family."

Astrid tucked away her pen and notepad as she stood to follow Olivia and John out of the room. "Don't worry, Mr. Kohlhepp. If you're innocent, we'll prove it."

"Thank you, Astrid," he said.

Stephanie Lee followed them. "Agent Dunham," she said, "my client gave me access to his files on the Gardner's insurance policies. If you think they'd be at all helpful in your investigation, I'll make sure you get copies of them."

"Thank you, but those were subpoenaed during the original investigation. I've already been over them, and nothing seems probative."

She nodded, and stared at her intensely. "I've worked with Robert since shortly after his arrest. I've gotten to know him. When his family could no longer afford my services, I took on his case pro bono, because I truly do believe he's innocent."

"I'll take that under consideration," Olivia said.

When she got to her car and climbed in the driver's seat, John was waiting in the front passenger seat, and Astrid was in the back, staring out the window.

Olivia caught John's eye. He was frowning slightly, and there was a troubled crease in his right eyebrow.

He'd noticed it too.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

The FBI office was thinly staffed at this time of night.

John was sitting at his desk, talking on his cellphone. He didn't see Olivia approach.

"I understand. Don't worry; I'll take care of it. We can't screw this one up." He closed the phone.

"What was that about?" she inquired.

"It's not work related," he said. "I've been digging through Robert Kohlhepp's history, but I still can't find any connection."

"I found something. This is from the coverage of the trial from the Boston Daily."

The black-and-white photograph prominently featured Janice Gardner avoiding reporters' questions, but behind her, in the crowd coming out of the courthouse, was a very recognizable young woman.

"So Astrid Farnsworth was at his trial. Any idea why?"

"No. As far as I could tell she had no reason to attend the trial, and jail records show she never visited Kohlhepp until today."

"She would have been in college at the time of the trial." John shook his head. "We should have seen it before. She knew way too much about this case from the start. She knew exactly how long it would take to drive from the victim's house to the Ravenna Hotel. That information isn't anywhere in the case file."

"Neither is the fact that Layton & Ostergard are under investigation. She could have found that out if she looked, but still...why would she have looked?"

"I think she also knew exactly where to find the hidden spare key," John said. "The original investigators on the case went over the car from top to bottom and couldn't find it, and she found it in a few minutes."

Olivia nodded. That would explain the tense moment during the Kohlhepp interview when he admitted he'd shown some people where to find the spare key. He could have been talking about Astrid. The giveaway, of course, had been that he'd known her first name, in spite of the fact that Olivia had only introduced her as Agent Farnsworth and none of them had addressed Astrid by name while they were there. "I'm going to have a talk with her," she decided.

John nodded. "Want me to come with you?"

"No thanks. I think she'll be more likely to open up if it's one on one."

"If she's withholding evidence about the case, that's serious. It could end her career, or worse."

"I know. That's why I want to give her a chance to explain herself before taking it any higher."

* * *

><p>Astrid was eating a bowl of raspberry sherbet and watching tv when she heard a knock at the door of her apartment. Her roommate Jessica answered it.<p>

"Astrid, it's for you."

Having just returned to the city and moved into her new apartment, Astrid had no idea who would want to visit her at this time of night, much less know her address.

It was Olivia at the door.

"Hey," she said with bemusement. "Come in. How did you know where I live?"

"I got your address from human resources. Listen, can we talk?"

Astrid felt her blood run cold. She had been hoping no one noticed Bob's slip. "Yeah."

"Can we sit down? This may take some time."

In resignation, Astrid directed her to the kitchen table.

"Let's start at the beginning. How do you know Robert Kohlhepp?"

Astrid took a deep breath. She couldn't look Olivia in the eyes. "My mother went to school with Robert's wife, Lauren. They were best friends. I've known Bob and Lauren my whole life. I babysat their kids once a week until I left for college. When my mom called me and told me Bob had been arrested, I couldn't believe it. He's a good man. He'd never do what he was accused of. When he was convicted...when he was actually convicted, I felt so helpless. I couldn't understand how the system could fail someone like that, could lock up an innocent man." She paused for several seconds. "I had no idea what I was going to do after college, so I decided to apply for the FBI. I thought maybe I could do something to help him. But...I figured out there wasn't much I'd be able to do."

Olivia studied her. "And yet you're here."

Astrid's eyes flashed up to hers for a moment before dropping back to the table top. Then she looked up again, a determination and defiance lending steadiness to her gaze. "I had a long time to think about the case, to think about the things I heard during the trial, and I came up with a theory of my own."

Olivia waited for her to explain.

"I started with the assumption that the wife was involved. Her alibi was unshakeable, and as far as I could find she didn't have the kind of money to hire someone to kill her husband, but there were other things that pointed to her. Gardner took the bus home from work. The place where Bob's car was parked was on the way from the bus stop to the Gardners' house. It's a pretty dark street, and there's a tree right across the sidewalk from where the car was parked that someone could hide behind. I was thinking it would most likely be two people, since two people could easily carry Gardner's body, and more than that wouldn't be able to hide there. They waited for Gardner to come home, and then they got the drop on him. If they hit him over the head with a large stick or baseball bat, which is what the coroner said was the most likely weapon, he could have been dead before he even knew they were there. They would have found the spare key on the car already, hid the body in the trunk, and left without anyone seeing them. They would have needed to know Gardner's route, what time he came home, and where the spare key was, all information they could have gotten from Janice Gardner while she kept their fall guy occupied. But that still left the question of who did the killing. It had to be someone Janice knew and trusted, and someone she knew would also have a reason to want Vinson Gardner dead."

She stopped and took a breath. Olivia was listening intently.

"At first I looked at Gardner's business rivals. The real estate world can be pretty cutthroat. While I was doing that, I learned about real estate fraud, and how it usually requires an appraiser to be complicit. I noticed for the past four years Gardner had been working almost exclusively for Layton and Ostergard, and making a good living at it, but that for about a month before his death he'd been avoiding taking jobs for them. I took a look at some of the houses they were offering for sale, pretending I was interested, and it didn't take me long to figure out they weren't worth the prices the firm was asking for them. I made a few phone calls, and pretty soon Layton and Ostergard found themselves with both a class action lawsuit and a fraud investigation on their hands."

Olivia found herself simultaneously impressed and a little uneasy at the seemingly guileless young agent's cunning.

"When the fraud investigation started getting results, I contacted Bob's lawyer and told her she might have grounds for an appeal. Even if we couldn't prove Layton and Ostergard had something to do with the murder, turning up someone else with an actual motive at least raises reasonable doubt about Bob's guilt. And while she was working on that, I graduated Quantico. I really hadn't expected to make it, to actually pass all the test and become an FBI agent, but I did. So I asked for this assignment. And that's how I got here."

"Why didn't you just tell us all this from the beginning?"

"Agent Francis told me not to. I sent him everything I'd found about the case, and told him why I thought it should be reopened. He said I could work with you on the investigation as long as I didn't try to bias you, as long as I let you come to your own conclusions."

Olivia nodded. It did sound like something Charlie would do. "So you really think Layton and Ostergard are behind it?"

"Not only that, I think Joseph Layton and Keith Ostergard committed the murder personally. Their alibi was a late night conference call with an investor in Russia. They'd scheduled that call three days in advance, when they could have been planning the murder. Ostergard left the office at four that night, and Layton left at five, which was earlier than they usually leave, and then got back to the office at eight. That gave them enough time to kill Gardner and be back for the conference call at eight, while Bob was on the way to New York with the body in his trunk. Everyone else who worked for them either didn't leave the office or didn't return to the office that night. The conference call, incidentally, was completely unnecessary. The only reason I can think of that they would have scheduled it was to give themselves an alibi, just like Janice made sure she was seen in public while her husband was being murdered, to give _herself_ an alibi."

"But that still leaves the problem of who took the body out of Kohlhepp's trunk."

"That's one of the two things I haven't been able to figure out yet," Astrid admitted.

"What's the other?" Olivia asked.

"Why did Janice Gardner want her husband dead?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

When Olivia had conveyed what she'd learned to John, he agreed it was time to talk to the victim's wife. They decided it would be best to do it without Astrid, as Janice might recognize her from the trial.

"Does it seem a little strange to you that she's still living in the same house? You'd think she'd want to move and start fresh after her husband's death," John said.

"I don't know. It could have sentimental value. Or just practical value," Olivia replied. "She might not be able to afford to move. I don't think we can draw a conclusion one way or another."

They rang the doorbell and waited.

A minute later Janice Gardner opened the door. She was a petite woman with light brown hair and light gray eyes. "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Yes, Ms. Gardner. I'm Olivia Dunham, from the FBI, this is my partner John Scott. I'm sure you're aware that Robert Kohlhepp's conviction is being appealed."

She nodded. "I'm aware."

"I'm sure this must be painful for you, but would you mind answering a few questions for us about the night your husband was murdered?"

"Of course not. Come in."

They sat in Janice's comfortable living room.

"Can I get you some coffee?"

"No thank you."

"Okay. What do you want to know."

"Your meeting with Robert Kohlhepp that night, was that at your suggestion or his?" John asked.

"Mine. I wanted to talk to him about my insurance policy. That's on record from the trial."

"Why did you suggest meeting him at the cafe? Why not your house or his office?" Olivia asked.

Janice shrugged. "I'd only been to his office a couple of times, with my husband, and I wasn't sure I could find my way there on my own. I've never been good with directions. So I asked Mr. Kohlhepp to meet me. I didn't want it to be at my house because I had a neighbor who, if she saw a man come into my house while my husband was away, would have told everyone I was having an affair."

"Do you have any idea why Mr. Kohlhepp would have killed your husband?"

"Like I said at the trial, honestly none whatsoever. I didn't know Mr. Kohlhepp well, but he seemed like a decent guy." She took a deep breath. "I didn't say this at the trial, because it's just speculation, but I think what might have happened was when he left the cafe, my husband was out for a walk for some reason, Mr. Kohlhepp accidentally hit him with his car, and instead of reporting it decided to hide the body. But I really don't know. The detectives asked me if Mr. Kohlhepp had a relationship with me, or wanted to. No. If he had feelings for me he never said or did anything to indicate it. For all I know, he could have had feelings for my husband."

Olivia leaned forward, looking sympathetic. "Ms. Gardner, do you know if Robert Kohlhepp knew Vinson's employers, Keith Ostergard and Joseph Layton?"

She shook her head slowly, frowning. "No, not that I know of."

"Did you know them?"

"Of course. I met them on several occasions, at work functions, office parties. Sometimes they came to my house to talk to my husband. Why?"

"Can you think of any reason they would have wanted to get rid of Vinson?"

"No, of course not," she stated. "Why? Robert Kohlhepp killed my husband. Are Joe and Keith suspects?"

John explained. "The firm of Layton and Ostergard is under investigation for real estate fraud."

Janice shook her head. "That's ridiculous. If anything like that was going on, Vin would have known. He would have told me. We told each other everything."

"Did you have a good relationship with your husband, Mrs. Gardner?" John asked.

"Yes we did. We fought sometimes, of course, usually about how much time he spent at work, but I loved him. And he loved me."

Olivia nodded and smiled. "Thank you for talking to us. I know how hard it is to lose someone you love. How have you been doing?"

She smiled politely. "I'm getting by. It took some getting used to, just living on my income, but I've been making it work. I mean, I still miss him. Some days are harder than others, but you know. I have to move on with my life."

Olivia and John stood and shook her hand. "We'll be in touch if we have any other questions."

They walked out to their car. "You know," Olivia said, "everyone grieves differently, but after my father died my mother was never the same. If someone asked her how she was doing three years later, there's no way her first thought would have been about her finances."

"Yeah. I didn't get the mourning widow vibe from her. She talks the talk, but she seems too happy. She didn't react when I said her late husband's name. Not a flicker of sadness on her face."

"And she knew Layton and Ostergard, so they could have arranged the murder."

"But how do we prove it?"

Olivia looked back at the house thoughtfully. "I wonder what that nosy neighbor might know about the real state of the Gardners' marriage."

* * *

><p>They returned to the office and went directly to Astrid, who was at her desk doing research on a computer.<p>

"Hey, that gossiping neighbor you were talking about with Detective McCormick..." John began.

"Mavis Shaw? What about her?"

"Do you know how to get in touch with her?"

"A ouija board, maybe. I'd wanted to talk to her myself, but she died about a year ago. She was notorious in her neighborhood, and apparently didn't have a high opinion of Mrs. Gardner. Detectives talked to her, but she hadn't seen anything on the night of the murder."

"Another dead end," John sighed.

Olivia frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe not. If she knew something or had her own theories about the murder, she would have confided in someone. A close friend or family, maybe. Did she have any family?"

"Not living with her," Astrid answered. "I don't know of any family, but I'm sure I can find out." She typed at her computer for a minute, then looked back up. "She has a brother and sister-in-law in Trenton, a sister and two nephews in California, and a niece in New York City. I'll call them and see if they know anything, or know of anyone else she might have confided in."

* * *

><p>The next day Olivia took Astrid with her to visit Mavis Shaw's niece in New York.<p>

Corinn Shaw was a youthful woman with short black hair. As she'd explained to Astrid over the phone, she had been very close to her aunt, and had saved the hundreds of emails they'd exchanged over the years.

"I'm not sure how Aunt Mavis's emails are going to help your investigation," she said as she waited for her computer to boot up.

"Do you remember her ever mentioning the murder of her neighbor Vinson Gardner?" Olivia asked.

"Oh yeah. She talked about it for months."

"Did she say who she thinks did it?"

Corinn laughed. "After that guy was convicted, she was sure she'd known it was him from the start. She thought he'd been having an affair with Mrs. Gardner and they conspired to kill her husband together."

She had her emails up.

"Let's go earlier than that," Olivia said. "Did she see anything the night of the murder?"

"What was the date on that?"

"January 27th, 2005," Astrid answered.

Corinn looked up that date and skimmed over it, then the next few emails. "She doesn't say anything about Vinson until his body was found. No mention of anything unusual the night of the murder."

"What did she think of Vinson's relationship to his wife?" asked Astrid.

She didn't even have to look at the emails. "They argued a lot. A few times Mavis heard Janice shouting at her husband."

"What did they argue about?" Olivia asked.

"Just a minute." Corinn did a search through her emails. "January 3rd, 2005. 'I was out shoveling my drive and Vin from across the street was walking to work. His wife followed him out to their sidewalk wearing nothing but a robe and slippers. She was screaming at him, saying don't you dare go through with it. He yelled back that the money wasn't worth it. She asked him if he thought she was worth it. He told her he was going to miss the bus and promised they'd talk about it more later before he said anything. That woman cares more about money than her own husband. I honestly don't know how long those two are going to last.' She never did find out what they'd been talking about."

Olivia glanced at Astrid. "That's okay. I think we already know."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

"Janice told us that if her husband were involved in the real estate scam, she would have known about it. We think that she did," Olivia explained to John when she and Astrid had returned to the office. "Vinson was thinking about blowing the whistle. If he'd done that..."

"She would have lost all that money they'd made in the scheme." John nodded. "I can see her having a problem with that. But I don't think she would have had her husband killed unless she gained something substantial by it."

"Well, consider this," Astrid suggested, "she tells Layton and Ostergard that her husband's going to blow the whistle on their operation, they make the plan to kill him, she gives them information on how to do it and get away with it in exchange for a hefty payout from them."

"It's possible that's how it went down," John agreed, "but how would we prove it?"

Olivia said thoughtfully, "I bet I could talk a judge into giving us a warrant for Janice's finances on the strength of the Mavis Shaw's emails."

"That would be good. But even if we do manage to prove Janice got money from Layton and Ostergard, it still wouldn't prove they killed him. And we still don't know how the body got from Kohlhepp's car to the dump site. Unless one of them can astral project and sent their ghost to drag the body out to the woods," John joked.

"Hey, I'll believe in ghosts before I believe the Bob Kohlhepp I know would be involved in a murder," said Astrid. "But from the way Janice acted after her husband's murder, I don't think she expected the body to be found. Think about it, if the body weren't found they never would have suspected Bob was involved at all, the police would have thought Vinson Gardner just ran away and would eventually give up looking for him. They were using Bob to get rid of the body, but weren't planning on framing him, which means they had someone else move the body, someone they trusted."

"Someone else involved in Layton and Ostergard's fraud," Olivia realized. "I bet one of them contacted someone to arrange it, but we wouldn't be able to get phone records from three years ago." She was thinking it through as she spoke. "But whoever it was would either have been waiting at the Ravenna Hotel in advance, or lived close to there. Astrid, does Layton and Ostergard have connections in New York?"

"I know they buy and sell houses there. Why?"

"Then they probably have contractors in the area. For the fraud they were perpetrating, the renovators they use would also have to be in on it."

"If they can be hired to perpetrate real estate fraud, they can probably be hired to hide a body," John stated. "And I bet if we figure out who it was, we can get them to talk."

* * *

><p>While Astrid and John went through Layton &amp; Ostergard's employment records, Olivia had gotten a warrant for Janice Gardner's financial records. There was nothing obvious in them, except that she took lavish yearly vacations to Europe, from which she would return none the poorer. Olivia managed to deduce she was getting money from a bank account in Europe, one that might easily have been set up for her by Layton and Ostergard.<p>

It was still not enough to prove anything.

Astrid and John ended up with four names of plausible suspects, four home renovators in the Albany area who did work for Layton & Ostergard. None of them appeared on the guest list at the Ravenna, which wasn't surprising, since it was unlikely someone would register at a hotel under their own name if they were just there to cover up a murder.

Four names being a reasonable number to interview, they took another road trip.

* * *

><p>Mark Valencia was microwaving dinner when he heard his doorbell ring. He looked at his clock. It was after 7:00. He wasn't expecting anyone.<p>

He saw them through the window: a man and two women in business suits.

He opened the door curiously. "Hi. Can I help you?"

"Mark Valencia?" asked the woman in front, a pretty blond.

"Yes."

"My name is Olivia Dunham, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This is Agent Scott and Agent Farnsworth. We'd like to ask you a few questions."

"Now isn't a really good time."

"It will only take a minute," she assured him.

"Okay." Cops always did make him nervous, but he didn't want to look suspicious by refusing to talk to them. It being a warm evening, he left the door open to talk to them at his doorstep. She said it would only take a minute, so there was no reason to invite them into his house.

But he would have been a lot less uneasy if there were only one FBI agent at his door. Even two would have been manageable: in movies and TV shows FBI agents always traveled in pairs. But three...they wouldn't have sent three FBI agents to ask a simple question.

The man stepped forward and handed him a photograph. "Mr. Valencia, have you ever seen this man before?"

It looked like a blow-up of a driver's license photo, but he recognized the man immediately.

It was the guy he'd dragged out into the woods all those years ago.

Mark could feel the color drain from his face. He'd feared this day would come. But three years had gone by and the cops never questioned him. He'd been sure he was in the clear.

He stifled his overwhelming urge to run. "No, I can't say I know him. Why?"

The blond woman and the man were staring at him, into him, like they could see right through him. The younger woman behind them was intently writing something on a notepad.

"It's interesting that you would say that, since we have evidence that you killed him," said Agent Dunham.

"Wh...what?"

Agent Scott explained. "A witness at the Ravenna Hotel saw you drag Mr. Gardner's body into the woods at around midnight on January 27th, 2005."

No one had seen him. No one had seen him! Mark's brain was screaming at him. "That's impossible. No one saw me."

He had definitely not meant to say that out loud.

"No one could have seen me," he quickly tried to amend his statement, "because I wasn't there. I don't even know where the Ravenna Hotel is."

This could not be happening. It was like so many nightmares he'd had the nights following that event.

The younger woman scoffed, but didn't stop taking notes.

"That's not what Mr. Layton and Mr. Ostergard told us," Agent Scott stated.

"He told us you murdered Vinson Gardner because he was going to expose the little con you guys were running."

"That's a lie!" Mark was nearly hyperventilating. "Joe Layton called me and told me there was a body in the trunk of a car and he needed me to get rid of it. He told me it would be in the Ravenna parking lot, he told me what the car looked like and the license plate number, and that I could find a key under the back bumper. I got rid of the body, but I didn't kill the guy! I didn't even know who he was!"

"So your boss calls you in the middle of the night and tells you to dump a body for him, and you don't call the police?" Agent Scott asked.

"Of course not," Agent Dunham answered for him. "If he got the police involved, they would have found out about the real estate scam, and Mark here would have gone to prison anyway. Isn't that right?"

He felt cornered. He wanted to run but had a feeling he couldn't outrun them, at least not the tall and strong-looking Agent Scott. "I didn't kill anyone. If I tell you what really happened, can I get a deal?"

Olivia smiled. "Sure."

* * *

><p>Keith Ostergard waited in a blank room at the Boston FBI field office. He'd been in several rooms like this since the investigation into his realty business started.<p>

But this was the first time the FBI had gotten involved. It was not a good sign.

And he'd been waiting here for ten minutes.

"What do they want?" he asked his lawyer, Brett Sykes, who he'd called as soon as he was asked to come in.

"It was something about a former employee of your company. Vinson Gardner. The man convicted of murdering him is appealing, so they're taking another look at the case."

Keith's eyes widened for a moment. "Why did they want to talk to me about that? It's not like his murder has anything to do with the case against us."

"They might just want more information about his employment." He looked his client over carefully. "Is there something I should know about Vinson Gardner?"

"No," Keith said quickly.

"Are you sure?" he asked with concern. "How much did he know about your company's operations?"

"Nothing."

Olivia entered then. "Thank you for coming in, Mr. Ostergard. I think you should know that my partner is interviewing Joseph Layton as we speak, and we'll be comparing your responses later. I hope you got your stories straight."

"Their accounts will match. My client has nothing to hide," the lawyer said.

"Other than that he murdered Vinson Gardner."

"Robert Kohlhepp murdered Vinson," Keith declared. "They found his blood in his car."

"Because his car was used to transport the body," Olivia said. "But he didn't know anything about it. Your business partner Joe Layton called Mark Valencia to dump the body in the woods in New York, where you hoped it wouldn't be found at least until it was past the point of IDing. Mr. Valencia, by the way, has already told us everything, both about the body dump and about the deal you had with him to flip substandard houses. The same scam that Vinson was going to come clean about, which is why you had to kill him, with the help of Mrs. Gardner, who's the one who told you Vinson was going to turn on you. There's just one thing we still don't know, though. And my partner is asking Layton the same question: who's idea was it to murder Vinson, yours or Layton's?"

Keith didn't say anything.

"I'm going to talk to my client in private," Sykes said.

"Sure. But remember, first person to talk gets the deal." She stood and left the room.

Sykes turned to him. "Keith, is it true? Did you have something to do with a murder?"

He didn't say anything, which was answer enough for the lawyer.

"You should have told me about this from the start."

"How could I?" Keith asked. "The embezzlement is one thing, but murder could be a life sentence."

"Then what were you thinking committing murder to cover up the embezzlement?" Sykes asked in a harsh whisper.

"Our plan was foolproof. No one was supposed to find out."

"You idiot." He shook his head and sighed. "Who's plan was it? Who first suggested killing him?"

"It was his wife, Janice. She called us to tell us Vinson was going to the police with what he knew. She'd talked him in to waiting a week to think about it. She said she had a way to kill him so no one would find out it was us."

"By framing Kohlhepp?"

"She knew where his spare key was on his car. She knew he was going to New York, and she said she would meet with him so we could hide the body in the trunk, she'd make sure he was running late so he wouldn't check the trunk, especially with how cold it was, and one of us could go later that night to get rid of the body. It was Joe's idea to get someone else to hide the body while we were on a call that would give us an alibi."

"And who actually killed him?"

Keith was quiet for a moment. Then he seemed to relax slightly. "Joe did. He killed him. I opened the trunk of the car and helped him move the body, but Joe's the one who killed him."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"I think we should see what kind of deal they're offering."

* * *

><p>Janice Gardner was waiting in the same room two hours later. She was handcuffed. She had declined a lawyer.<p>

The door opened and Astrid came in. "Hello Mrs. Gardner," she said. "Do you remember me?"

Janice looked at her. "I don't think so. Have we met?"

"I was at Bob Kohlhepp's trial. I heard you testify. You said you didn't know why Bob would want to kill your husband. You said you didn't know why anyone would want to kill him." Astrid was glaring at her. "You were lying. And because you lied, a good man has been in prison for three years. An innocent man. My friend."

"I'm sorry that happened," she said. "But I didn't kill my husband, and no one can prove otherwise."

"Maybe you can get out of the murder conviction, but the investigators on this case are really good, and if they dig up evidence you knew about your husband's complicity in the real estate fraud or his plan to come clean, you're going to be convicted of perjury. Ostergard and Layton are cooperating. They both say the murder was your idea, and you asked them for money because you saved them millions of dollars by keeping your husband from turning them in. You had your husband murdered—a man you were supposed to love—for money. And you ruined another man's life to get away with it. I'm not here to interrogate you about the crime. Other people are going to do that later. What I want to know is: was it worth it?"

"Without admitting to anything, I'll say that if I did what I'm being accused of in planning my husband's murder, I must have been pretty sure it would be worth it."

Astrid took a deep breath as her hands clenched into fists. "We'll see if you still think it was worth it after spending the rest of your life in prison." She turned on her heels and left the room.

* * *

><p>Olivia looked up as Charlie Francis walked up to her desk. "Hey," she said.<p>

"Hey. I thought you might be interested in knowing that Robert Kohlhepp is going to be released on the strength of Mark Valencia and Keith Ostergard's confessions. There's still processing to do, but he'll be home with his family in a few days."

"Great," she smiled.

"You did good on this case."

She nodded. "You know, it's nice to put away bad guys, but actually helping someone who was wrongly imprisoned get their life back...that's a good feeling."

"What's your opinion of Agent Farnsworth, now that you've worked with her?"

"She's got a lot of potential," Olivia replied. "Her dedication to this case, her thoroughness, and the way she put together what really happened even before she had the FBI's resources at her fingertips were brilliant."

"So you think she'd be good to keep on here?"

"Absolutely. Why?"

"She mentioned that after this case she didn't know what she was going to do. I think she's not sure about staying with the FBI."

"I'll talk to her," Olivia said. "So you knew what she knew about the case from the beginning?"

"She contacted me and told me about the information she'd put together in the years she'd spent researching the case on her own time."

"And so you reopened the investigation for her?"

"Well, she made a good presentation."

"And had a personal relationship with the suspect."

"A little bit of subjectivity can be a good thing," he said.

Olivia smiled. "You're a good man, Charlie Francis."

He chuckled. "Have a word with her. We could use someone like her on our team. She admires you; we could start her out as your assistant."

Olivia found Astrid at her desk, working on a report.

"Hey," she said.

Astrid looked up. "Hi."

"I don't know if you heard, but Robert Kohlhepp is going to be released."

"Yeah. His lawyer called me to thank me." She smiled. "It's good news."

"You deserve it. Your work on this case was brilliant. It never would have been solved without you."

"Thanks," she said.

"Charlie tells me you're thinking of leaving the FBI."

Astrid shrugged. "The reason I joined the FBI was to try to help Bob, and I've done that. I'm not sure what more I can offer here."

"So what are you going to do next?"

"I don't know," she answered. "I'll find something."

"Why don't you want to stay with the FBI?"

"It's not that I don't want to stay; I'm just not sure I'm the kind of person the FBI wants for an agent."

"You're compassionate and unconventional," Olivia argued. "You said you wanted to be the kind of FBI agent who considers people innocent until proven guilty. We need more agents like you. Don't worry about being the kind of agent you think the Bureau _wants_; be the kind of agent the Bureau _needs. _Agent Francis and I both think you'd be a valuable asset to our team."

A smile forced its way onto Astrid's face. "You really think I'd make a good FBI agent?"

"I know it," Olivia replied, "because you already have. I'll be honest with you, it's not always going to be easy. You'll be asked to prove yourself every single day, and you're not going to win them all. But it's going to be worth it, because every time you do get the bad guy and protect the innocent, you're going to go home knowing you made a difference."

"I'll think about it," Astrid said, and the tone of her voice told Olivia the decision was already made.

"Good." She smiled at her. "I'll see you tomorrow."

John met up with her as she left the building. "So, think the new girl is going to work out?"

"Yeah. She'll do great."

"Her work on this case was definitely impressive. You know, she reminds me of you."

"How so?"

"Passionate, dedicated, doesn't take no for an answer."

"Speaking of not taking no for an answer..." She turned to him. "Do you have any plans tonight?"

The huskiness of her voice immediately ensnared him. "I hope so." They were far enough from the building to be safe from prying eyes. He risked a quick kiss.

Olivia looked back at the FBI building as she drove away. It had been a good case.

It was true, what she'd said to Astrid. As difficult as this job was sometimes, it was worth it.


End file.
